Also, I'm totally fine with all the categories getting pared down, except for male/female indie crush. That shit was important.
Limiting it to people who released music this year, I'd have to go with either RAC, Kishi Bashi, or Kele. Buncha cuties.
You should check out wolfparade.nonstuff.com then, if you're not a regular there already. Great little community of DB&SK loving weirdos. And yeah, the Furs are fuckin' great. They're actually tied with U2 for my favorite band of all time forever, which seems to confuse people.
And no, Songs of Innocence wasn't really in the running for this desert island thing. I'm sure Apple would find a way to get it to me regardless
Okay here's my list, pared down to seven and posted in the right place now:
Baths – Obsidian // For when I'm sad & lonely, and want to stay that way
Burial – Rival Dealer // For when I'm sad & lonely, but don't want to be
Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma // For when the stars are out and I want to imagine being somewhere else entirely
Frank Ocean – channel ORANGE // For when I want to feel loved
Handsome Furs – Sound Kapital // For when I want to get nostalgic and/or excited
Kishi Bashi – 151a // The only actually happy one
The Knife – Shaking The Habitual // uh, The Knife
Serengeti – Saal // I couldn't explain my attraction to this album if I wanted to. It really is one of the greatest albums ever made though, to me at least.
Okay I lied that's eight but I just can't get rid of another one.
I only listened to the leak once so far, so don't pay much attention to me. I thought it sounded better than Nine Types of Light, but still kind of... not that exciting? Happy Idiot was pretty instantly likeable, and the rockier songs towards the end were a nice surprise. But on the whole, I'm a little more swept up in the most recent Wildbirds & Peacedrums record. Definitely not giving up on it, just not really ranting and raving about it either. Return to Cookie Mountain remains my undisputed TVOTR go-to for the foreseeable future.
When they released the album art, I said:
"That is one ugly-ass cover (and album title). It feels so airbrushed, digitally pieced together, faceless… Hopefully the music doesn’t fit with the art at all"
...well, it fits. If a new Foo Fighters song is too compressed/brickwalled to rock, and doesn't have a hook, or any other notable features, what's the point? Can't say I'm excited for this album at all.
This is quite honestly my favorite Pumpkins record. It's more approachable than Mellon Collie, and more varied than Gish, and more... lighthearted than all of them?
And it has Starla on it.
I have had a pair of Sennheiser HD598's for two years now, and I'm still head over heels in love with them. They're currently $181 on amazon right now, which is actually really good. They're open backed, which means there's a little more space for the sounds to live in. This also means that a lot of sound gets in and out, so you won't want these on a noisy train ride (or a crowded, quiet train ride, for that matter). The first time I listened to them, I spent 5 straight hours ignoring my friends to re-listen to a little of everything in my iTunes. It's an unbelievable, dramatic difference between these and day to day headphones. The actual EQ of these is slightly geared towards the high end, which the 598's cover beautifully. Things like acoustic guitar and stringed instruments sound like heaven. The bass is clean and clear, but not very loud. If you listen to a lot of bass-heavy music, you might want a different set. Overall, these things are one of my favorite possessions, and even though they don't leave my room, I don't know what I'd do without 'em.
Hopefully that was self-serious and long-winded enough :)
Yeah man Pop is the shit. I'm fully convinced it's Bono's best album lyrically/thematically/whatever. And the sonics are great too. Underrated as hellll
I initially thought it was a little strange, but after having lived with it for a few days, I think it's their best album art since Achtung Baby. Intense, visceral, complementary to the lyrical themes about trying to hold on to innocence, I love it. If the music was a little less all about appealing to the masses, it'd be a perfect match.
You guys can't be talking winter albums without mentioning Burial. Rival Dealer soundtracked all of last winter for me, and it was unbelievable. Especially late at night. That thing is spacious and sad and gorgeous and brings me down and lifts me up all at once. Plus, it's slightly lovably cheesy, and even a little Christmas-y? It's fall now, and I'm still talking about it in person to people who really, really don't care.
I don't know about you guys, but I kinda wish internet music review culture could slow down a little bit. It's not even been a full two days (!) since anyone has heard this thing, and we're already getting Rolling Stone singing its praises and Stereogum doing the opposite, among countless others. It just feels like a race to the bottom, filled with immediate, visceral reactions that don't do much other than satisfy people's need to have heard of them first.
Now excuse me while I wait impatiently for year-end list season to start, because mine's already put together
I'm the biggest U2 fan I know, and I'm over the fuckin' moon about this new album, but let's talk about this iPod Classic discontinuation. And by talk, I mean ask What the hell am I supposed to do when my 160gb Classic dies? I'm pretty not happy about this news.
At this point, I know what I'm going to get when I click on a deadmau5 "where's the beef", and I know that I won't really enjoy it, but I can't stop. The guy's an immature ass, but at the same time, I keep giving this nonsense page views...
I'm actually really impressed with this. I don't care a whole lot about the Strokes, but this has just enough weird stirred into it that I can get behind it. My Voidz passing interest is now a genuine anticipation, and I'm looking forward to hearing this one on a walk at night sometime soon.
http://www.atu2.com/newalbum/
Read from the bottom up, it's pretty depressing. Personally, they've just beaten me into submission at this point. It'll come out if/when it comes out.
That is one ugly-ass cover (and album title). It feels so airbrushed, digitally pieced together, faceless... Hopefully the music doesn't fit with the art at all
Stereogum quoted him as saying:
"I’ve seen faces of blank terror when I walk by. Sometimes from seemingly strong, macho dudes — somehow my presence confuses and ultimately scares them. There is a strange power to it that I’ve only recently begun to understand and embrace. After many years trying to sort out exactly what they are scared of, most of the time converting the result into personal shame, there are now moments of monstrous pride."
I take the video as showing the process of hate: receiving, internalizing, understanding, maybe even overcoming. He's getting all this shit, and lashing out, and in turn getting more shit, until the end when he jumps off the building and is free from it all. The scary part is that this isn't a Romeo & Juliet melodrama, this shit happens in real life too.
Yeah, maybe I just spend too much time on the internet trying to avoid shitty memes and regurgitated in-jokes, but I'm not sure I did anything other than crack a smile a few times during any of those videos. At the risk of sounding like a too-hip dickhead, it's nice, but I don't think it's really funny/new/exciting/necessary.
but for real, asking for down votes is just asking for down votes
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